


A Place in The Sun

by Lady_Vibeke



Series: Cara Dune & Din Djarin: Tales of Two Space Idiots in Love [29]
Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Cute, Day At The Beach, Developing Relationship, F/M, Family Fluff, Fun, Gen, Idiots in Love, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25914637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Vibeke/pseuds/Lady_Vibeke
Summary: “Are we really sure he's not an amphibian?” Cara is giggling, trying to shield herself from the sprinkles erupting from the kid's all too eager movements.Din breathes out a disbelieving laugh. “We should probably get him an aquarium.”“Or go to the beach more often.”Cara's eyes glitter in the sunlight as she glances up at him, screening her face with a hand. There are freckles surfacing here and there over her shoulders, on her nose and reddened cheeks. The droplets of water running down her chest are hypnotising, so much Din has to blink a couple of times before he can remember what they were talking about.Going to the beach more often,he suddenly remembers. He'd love that. He'd love to have more moments like this, beach or not. Moments where they can just be people having fun like any other family out there.His heart misses a beat.Family.Is this what they are?[ One day at the beach. Fun and cuteness. Baby steps. In so many ways. ]
Relationships: Baby Yoda & The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV), Baby Yoda (The Mandalorian TV) & Cara Dune, Baby Yoda (The Mandalorian TV) & Cara Dune & The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV), Cara Dune & The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV), Cara Dune/The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)
Series: Cara Dune & Din Djarin: Tales of Two Space Idiots in Love [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1709416
Comments: 38
Kudos: 132





	A Place in The Sun

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a private joke to distract [Name1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Name1/pseuds/Name1) while she was at work, but she's a little shit and bullied me into writing this (She did, I swear! She's a horrible person! 😢)
> 
> If this one feels half-assed, it's probably because it was meant to be a pastime, not a real story. It's not even a real story, anyway, just pure, pointless fluff, so... duh.
> 
> Enjoy, I guess? 😅

All the tales Din heard about the unspeakable beauty of the black beaches of Sesid couldn't have prepared him for the break-taking sight spreading for miles and miles in front of him right now.

There are chances his breathlessness is not entirely due to the landscape, but that is a matter he will deal with later. Or never.

Cara has just stripped the kid of his robe. He wiggled out of it so quickly one might have thought it was burning him. Now the child is trotting across the dark sand, shrieking in utter delight as he approaches the wet shore.

“Wait a sec, buddy!” Cara giggles, running after him. She catches him the exact moment he's about to throw himself into the water and the kid turns to look up at her in confusion.

Cara sets him down and this time the child doesn't move.

“Give me a moment, okay?” she says as she starts unfastening her armour.

Realising what she's doing, the kid starts bobbing up and down on his stubby legs, taking pleasure in how the sand gives in under his little feet.

Cara discards her shirt and shoots Din an amused grin. He's just standing there under a palm, too mesmerised by the crystal waters shining under the sun and the kid's unrestrained joy for being there.

When Cara's clothes are gone, instinctively Din glances down at his feet. At the periphery of his sight, her feet kick her armour into a pile. He can't help looking up slightly, just to see the child jump around her in excitement, making her laugh in a way Din has never seen before.

He catches the muscles of her legs flexing as she bends to pick up the baby.

“You sure you don't wanna join us, man?”

It takes him a couple of seconds too long to process what Cara just said and that it's addressed to him. He rips his attention from her legs and hastily shakes his head.

“I can't swim, anyway.”

“You _what?”_

He expects Cara to make fun of him, but the mirth in her grin quickly turns into a resolute expression.

“Okay, memo for when we have more time,” she says, looking at the kid, “we need to teach Daddy how to swim.”

The child responds with a toothy titter he turns in Din's direction. Cara grabs one of his wrists and makes him clap, which he immediately turns in an overenthusiastic applause that makes both Cara and Din laugh until their shoulders shake.

Cara walks into the water for several feet before the water is deep enough to reach her ankles; these shores are famous for their calm, shallow waters and this seemed like the perfect place for a much needed break after a long hunting week.

When Cara sets the child down, it's like releasing a fish into his natural element: the darts into the water and starts splashing madly into it until he gets some into his nose.

“Hey, hey, take it easy, little guy,” Cara soothes with gentle pats on his back.

The brief moment of panic is soon forgotten as the child heads farther into the water. Cara follows him and before he knows Din finds himself standing on the strip of wet sand, his feet barely touched by the lazy waves coming and going. He doesn't even know how he got here.

Cara has sat down and crossed her legs, the water pooling around her hips; she's keeping a sharp eye on the tiny green swimmer having the time of his life in what seems to be his favourite environment after Din's or Cara's arms.

“Are we really sure he's not an amphibian?” Cara is giggling, trying to shield herself from the sprinkles erupting from the kid's all too eager movements.

Din breathes out a disbelieving laugh. “We should probably get him an aquarium.”

“Or go to the beach more often.”

Cara's eyes glitter in the sunlight as she glances up at him, screening her face with a hand. There are freckles surfacing here and there over her shoulders, on her nose and reddened cheeks. The droplets of water running down her chest are hypnotising, so much Din has to blink a couple of times before he can remember what they were talking about.

 _Going to the beach more often,_ he suddenly remembers. He'd love that. He'd love to have more moments like this, beach or not. Moments where they can just be people having fun like any other family out there.

His heart misses a beat.

_Family._

Is this what they are?

He watches Cara swim with the kid perched upon her shoulders and he thinks that, in their own very personal way, what they've built together is something very close to a family.

“Hey, Din, watch this!”

He looks up just in time to see Cara throw the child up in the air – _very high_ – and do absolutely nothing to catch him back.

“Cara, what-”

Driven by instinct, he launches himself forward, but too late: the child lands in the water and disappears under its surface. Din paralyses, ankle-deep into the water. One second later, the kid emerges with a splutter right in front of Cara and, giggling hysterically, swims straight into her arms like nothing happened. 

“Uh-oh, Daddy's grumpy,” Cara notes, taking in Din's stiff posture. Without waiting for him to reply, she paddles back to the shore, observing Din with an apologetic expression.

“I think we scared him, buddy,” she whispers in the child's ear. “You should give him a big hug.”

She hands him over to Din and the kid leans forward to wrap his arms around Din's neck, nuzzling his head under his chin with a soft mewl.

Din feels his body relax. He meets Cara's eyes over the child's back and finds them sheepishly trained down to the ground.

“He's a better swimmer than I thought,” he admits sheepishly. He doesn't want Cara to feel guilty for giving the child the time of his life. He wishes he could swim with them, take off his armour and just have a good time. Maybe one day he will, if Cara's offer wasn't a joke.

“Let's stick to games we can all enjoy,” she says warmly as she steps out of the water. She grabs Din's elbow and drags him back to the middle of the beach, where the sand is dry and soft.

Din kneels and lets the child scurry away to collect shells. It takes the little guy less than ten seconds to be entirely covered in dark sand, much to Cara's amusement.

She pulls Din down to sit with her in the sand under the shade of the palms. One by one, the kid brings them shells and drift wood pieces and lines them up at their feet with very proud gurgles, sneezing from time to time when some send gets into his nose. Every time he brings something new, he looks at Din and Cara, waits for their praise, then waddles away in all his green, glorious nakedness.

“I could watch him all day,” laughs Cara after being presented with a disgusting half-rotten chunk of seagrass.

“We really should do this more often,” Din agrees. The black sand glitters on Cara's wet skin, sticks to her fingers while she gathers a small mountain of sand. She tries to stick the pieces of driftwood into it, but it keeps falling apart.

“I guess we should have brought a bucket,” she sighs. “We're gonna get you a bucket, next time,” she promises when the kid returns with a new booty. “And a nice little spade, yeah?”

The kid gives her a puzzled look. There is a bit of sand dusting his chin; Din tries to brush it off, but the kid jumps back and before Din can say anything he's hurrying back to the shore. He bends and tries to collect some water, letting out a disappointed noise when he understands it's not going to work.

He trots back to Din and Cara, showing them his dripping but empty hands, and Din has an idea.

He raises his hand to unlock one of his pauldrons and hands it to the child.

“Here. Try with this.”

The kid's face brightens up at once. He runs back to the shore, dips the pauldron into the sea and titters happily when it comes up full. Cara snorts watching him leave a wake of water behind himself as he hurries back to them, victorious. By the time he reaches her and Din, there is very little water left, but the kid is still very proud when he pours it onto Cara's little mountain.

It takes him a dozen journeys back and forth to get enough water, but in the end they can successfully shape up something that has the vague semblance of a castle.

“Put these in,” Cara instructs, handing the shells to the child then showing him how to decorate their masterpiece. She drops a handful of shells and colourful pebbles into Din's palm, “You, too, big guy.”

Din has never made a sand castle before. It doesn't even really look like a castle, but both the child and Cara are having so much fun with it he just can't help playing along.

When they run out of decorations, they take a moment to admire their work and Din has to admit it turned out better than he thought. It still doesn't resemble a castle, but it's charming, in its own lumpy way.

The kid is sitting before it with a big, satisfied grin lighting up his face. He's clapping again.

“Looks like he's got a new favourite reaction,” Cara quips, her smile bringing dimples to her sunburnt cheeks. “Much better than those deafening shrieks, uh?” she adds, stroking one of the child's ears.

Din is about to remark that anything would be better than those shrieks when the kid grabs his pauldron from the ground and, gazing up at him, places his over his head like a hat.

Or a _helmet._

“Are you kidding me!” laughs Cara. The kid glances at her expectantly. “Yes, you look exactly like Daddy,” she compliments, unable to stay serious.

Din is too touched to speak, not just because his foundling just mimicked him, but also because he knows that this is what children are supposed to do: play, relax, have fun. They've never been so close to _normal_ as they are now, and walking out of this reverie is going to be harder than he had expected.

“A real Mandalorian,” he says fondly, much to the kid's delight. The pauldron is asymmetrical: it stands lopsidedly on his head, barely balanced upon the flattened giant ears. It starts sleeping off and Din catches and repositions it at a slightly more stable angle.

“You two are the cutest thing ever,” says Cara. The affection in her voice is clear and tangible. Din hadn't realised how close they were sitting until he was suddenly aware of how hot her thigh felt pressed against his, even through his trousers. She has her arms wrapped around her bent legs, chin propped upon her knees. Her hair is darker than the sand sticking to its wet locks. The big smile she wears outshines the sun filtering through the palm leaves, and Din finds himself wanting to do things he doesn't know how she would take. It would be innocent – a touch on her cheek, his fingers brushing some sand off her shoulder, out of her hair... – but he's too afraid of overstepping his boundaries with her, and in the end he doesn't even know where this impulse is coming from.

Cara's head bends in Din's direction; she rests her face against her knees and shoots him a pensive look, her teeth digging softly into the corner of her bottom lip. The smile is still lingering, though more hesitant, almost shy.

They stare at each other in silence for a while, enjoying the peace of the place, the lulling sound of the waves and the whisper of the wind in the trees... until a snoring sound breaks the spell.

They look down: the child is splayed out all over the crumbling castle; he has fallen asleep face down into the sand.

Cara lets out a tender giggle.

“Just when you think he couldn't get any more adorable.”

“He's had an intense day,” Din whispers. He reaches forward and gathers the child into his arms. The little one is sleeping so soundly he doesn't even notice. Grinning to himself, Din brings him up to rest over his exposed shoulder, where the baby curls with a soft sigh and immediately starts snoring again.

“It was fun,” Cara agrees. “We all deserve more days like today.”

She bumps her shoulder into Din's and they smile at each other. Din's own smile might be hidden, but this has never been enough to stop her from reading him. Their closeness feels good, and if Din felt a little bolder, if he was sure she wanted it, too, he would wrap an arm around her shoulders to hold her closer.

But he's not bold and he doesn't know how she feels, so he doesn't move. Until he has a thought.

Without a word, he lifts his hand, careful not to disturb the child, and unfastens the other pauldron.

Cara watches it fall to the ground and gives Din a perplexed look, then her eyes shift to the child slumbering upon his other shoulder and she seems to understand.

Din waits, immobile, for her to do something. The light is slowly going from white to orange; the horizon and the sea get painted in red and gold as the sun starts setting.

Achingly unreadable, Cara considers Din's implicit offer for a couple more seconds, then snorts to herself, grunts a muffled _“What the hell,”_ and finally lets her head fall to his shoulder.

“Let's not make a big deal out of this,” she mumbles. Then, when Din's heart has already sunk a little, as if on a second thought she adds, _“Yet.”_

A quiet laughter simmers within Din's chest.

He rests back against the palm, bring the child and Cara down with himself, and lets his eyes close for a moment, a content smile tugging at his lips.

They had a good day.

And _yet_ sounds goon enough, all in all.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm very very sad that the famdom seems to have fallen asleep over the last few weeks, it's so depressing to see so few new fics and so few comments everywhere... I hope you guys are still out there, just too busy having fun on holiday. ❤
> 
> Let's try to keep the love alive, we only have a couple of months to go before season 2... we can do it!


End file.
